Welcome to The Void
Welcome to The Void is the second episode of ''Tech 10: Rebooted''. Episode "So, this is Earth." The horned crimson figure walked further into the desert he had landed in. His dark purple cape flowed behind him in the harsh wind of the wasteland, as the burning sunlight beat down upon the scorched landscape. "I suppose I was expecting it to look much less like home." He turned to face the river he had been walking alongside. The flowing water provided the only relief from the heat that battered down on any life that may have lived in the area, a fact that was not lost on him even if his own biology rendered the intense heat a moot point. He continued following the stream, reasoning that it was the most reliable way to find civilization of some kind. He silently reflected on and momentarily begrudged the fact that his ship had started breaking apart while entering the Earth's atmosphere, forcing him to make an emergency landing so far from his intended destination. The fact that his species had once been among the galaxy's finest engineers before being reduced to a primitive society on the edge of the galaxy that could barely build a functioning FTL Drive was already a large source of bitterness for him, and this recent incident just seemed to rub salt in the wound, so to speak. This will all be worth it when I finally find what I'm looking for. He reminded himself in an attempt to stay calm. And if the rumors about this "Ben Tennyson" are true, I may very well find it sooner rather than later. ---- "So, Aquadilus, how are our stocks doing today?" Tech flopped down in his chair in the back of the store. It was just past noon, and he was expecting to have a fairly empty shop while the tourists went out for a lunch break. Aquadilus looked up from the paper he was reading with an exasperated expression. "Tech, we don't have stocks. We don't have them now, we've never had them in the past, and it's highly unlikely we will have them in the future. You don't even know how the stock market works. Why the hell would you ask me how our stocks are doing?" "Because I like screwing with you." Aquadilus opened his mouth to deliver a rather vulgar monologue in response but was interrupted by the door of the shop opening. The horned crimson figure walked into the building, making his way up to the front desk. Aquadilus settled for shooting Tech a dirty look and exited the back room, making his way to his position at the counter. He paused, giving the new arrival a suspicious glare. "Huh. Don't see many Emotispecters off Tavastrin." "Not many leave it." The crimson figure replied. "And since you're not rampaging around like a lunatic, I can only assume you came here under special circumstances." "That is correct, albeit unrelated to my state of mind. I am Warlord Kroz, the only surviving Leader class of my race." "Leader class?" Aquadilus raised an eyebrow. "I thought those were a myth." "As did most Specterians before I rose to power." Aqaudilus thought to himself for a few moments before replying. "Well, it's not like I have much room to talk given where I'm from." Aquadilus sighed. "Anyways, what do you need?" "I would like directions to the city of Bellwood." Tech let out a scoff from the back room, drawing Kroz's attention. "Geez, another Ben 10 fanboy?" Tech rolled his eyes, walking up to the doorway of the room and lazily leaning against it. "You morons sure seem to end up in the middle of the desert a lot when you're looking for a coastal city." "For your information, I'm only here because my ship broke down." "Whatever you say, Horny." Tech yawned. "And in any case," Kroz continued, mildly annoyed by Tech's tomfoolery. "I am no "fanboy", as you put it. I'm here to challenge him for possession of the Earth as specified in the Galactic Code of Conduct." "Wow, someone with a legitimately interesting reason to see a celebrity." Tech absentmindedly scratched the side of his head. "Too bad he's gone." "What do you mean, "he's gone"?" "I mean he's gone. Absent. Flew the coop. No longer in the general vicinity of this area." "...You are a rather grating individual." Kroz sighed. "Stupid question, stupid answer." "Alright then, how about this question: where is he?" "Couldn't tell you exactly." Aquadilus replied. "Dude's been dodging the media lately after something went wrong on some planet in the east sector. Rumor has it he's entering that cross-galaxy race that's getting advertised everywhere, but nobody really knows for sure." "I was planning on entering that myself, assuming my flagship is completed on time." Kroz mused. "Perhaps that would be the best occasion to do battle." "Well then, I guess that's all settled." Tech stood up straight and clapped his hands together. "Tennyson's entering Wacky Races and the Crimson Edgelord wants to fight him. Would you like to buy a snowglobe on your way off Earth?" "You ''don't get to call other people "Edgelords"." Aquadilus rolled his eyes. "I'm afraid I can't leave this planet quite yet." Kroz said. "As I said, my ship is wrecked." "Whatever." Tech waved him off. "If you need a ride, Salt Lake City has the closest spaceport. Your thoughts, Aquadilus?" "I hear there's a nice sushi place around 18th West. You should check that out while you're there." "Hold on a moment." Kroz pointed to the SpecTrix, noticing it for the first time. "Is that an Omnitrix?" "It's the SpecTrix." Aquadilus explained. "Basically think the Omnitrix but with ADHD and no proper direction in life." "I see." Kroz replied, not really understanding the metaphor but not willing to get into a discussion about it either. "And do you know how to use it properly?" He gestured at Tech. "No, but that's what makes me even more dangerous." Tech struck a dramatic pose. "I'm ''unpredictable." "You're an idiot." Aquadilus interjected. "Can I challenge you for the fate of the Earth?" Kroz asked. "Absolutely not." Aquadilus stated. "Sure." Tech replied. "Tech, no!" "Aquadilus, you know the rules." Tech sighed. "Plumbers are only letting me operate as long as I pick up Tennyson's slack while he's gone. If he's challenging me for the Earth, I gotta accept." "Since when do you follow the rules?!" Aquadilus snapped. "Since it annoyed you." Tech smirked. ---- Tech never really got used to teleportation. It made everything start tingling and always left him feeling dizzy afterward, but he couldn't deny the fact that it really cut down on gas expenses. He took a moment to survey his surroundings. He was in the middle of a large desert with sparse plant life and red soil. Warlord Kroz was already there, standing about thirty feet away from the spot where Tech teleported in. "The middle of the desert, huh? I kinda figured you'd want a more public location to battle in." "I was never one to show off." Warlord Kroz replied. "Fair enough. You ready to fight?" "You may make the first move whenever you are ready." The SpecTrix started buzzing static, which was quickly replaced by Aquadilus's voice. "Okay Tech, remember: Emotispecters aren't the strongest or the fastest things out there, but they're still quite a bit more powerful than humans. Striking fast and hard would probably be your best bet; that way, he doesn't have time to use his dispersement or neural control." "Noted." Tech started spinning the SpecTrix dial. "Let's get this started, shall we?" Tech slammed down on the dial, transforming into Electrolite. He charged forward, pulling his fist back into a striking position and charging up the shot with electricity. He swung his arm, aiming for a direct impact... ...but suddenly found his arm twisting itself to the side, throwing him off balance and making him scrape by his target without a hit. Warlord Kroz hadn't so much as flinched. "What the..." Electrolite quickly swung around to take another shot, but his arm twisted off to the side again, missing his opponent completely. He jumped a few feet back, keeping his eye on Kroz. "Okay Aquadilus, what's going on?" "Well, it would appear as if your opponent has excellent timing." Aquadilus replied. "But he hasn't even moved!" "Neural manipulation, remember? If he's faster than you and you're using an alien with anything resembling a nervous system, he's got the upper hand." "In that case, let's try something different." Electrolite transformed into Terminano and shot forward at a blinding speed, aiming for Kroz, who dodged the blow and slammed his fist into the approaching android,, severely denting his metal exterior and sending him flying. Terminano hit the ground and skid to a stop, barely having enough time to get up before Kroz shot forward and delivered a vicious uppercut, sending him flying into the air and falling back down with a painful thud. Terminano quickly transformed into Rebide, standing up and using his crossed arms to block the punches being thrown at him a mile a minute. He suddenly threw his arms out, knocking Kroz away and forming an energy ball with his barbels. He shot the energy ball at Kroz, who formed a hole in his body that the ball passed through before shooting forward at his opponent, smashing him in the face and sending him stumbling backward. Rebide transformed into Carbon, assuming a diamond form and rushing at Kroz, who stepped out of the way and slammed his index and middle finger into a cleavage line on Carbon's back, cracking the diamond and sending him flying forward. Carbon stood up and was immediately charged by Kroz, who hit the SpecTrix dial and sent him flying again, causing him to transform back into a human. Tech used the SpecTrix interface to summon the Pyronaut Blade in midair, shoving the sword into the ground and using it to halt his flight before propping himself up on it. As Warlord Kroz rushed towards him for another attack, he activated the blade, superheating it almost instantaneously. As Kroz was about to make contact, he rolled to the side and swung the blade, managing to slice through Kroz's legs. Kroz yelled in frustration and dispersed then resummoned his legs. This bought Tech enough time to transform into Heatjet, sending a large plume of fire billowing towards Kroz. His opponent who jumped over the flames and landed a heavy kick on Heatjet, knocking the wind out of him and giving him time to throw a few more punches that landed like sledgehammers, sending his opponent back a few steps while dazing him. He recovered in time to sidestep away from Kroz's next attack and transformed into Sandrill, immediately melting into the ground and sneaking up behind Kroz. He shot up out of the ground and shot a drill at his opponent, who whipped around, grabbed the drill, and crushed it back into sand before slamming Sandrill upside the head. Sandrill jumped back and transformed into Umbra, turning invisible and shooting shadow energy at Kroz, who managed to block the shots and track the imprints Umbra was leaving in the soft soil. After tracking the footprints for a few seconds, Kroz lunged forward with a well-timed punch, landing a perfect hit on Umbra and knocking him backwards. Umbra transformed into Luminferus and started glowing intensely, momentarily blinding Kroz, who used his neural manipulation to force his opponent to step back and stop glowing, allowing him to land another hit. Luminferus transformed into Splitter and cloned himself, using his clones to kick up a large cloud of dust and attack Kroz, who had been blinded by the dirt. Kroz ripped through the weaker clones like tissue paper, quickly disposing of them and wiping the dirt out of his eyes. When he could see again, he was surrounded by a group of Splitter clones. He shot towards one and swiped at it, revealing it to be nothing more than an illusion. Kroz started ripping through the holograms one by one, decimating them incredibly quickly and revealing the real Splitter, who had been hiding behind one of the illusions and messing with the SpecTrix. Kroz's next attack sent him flying forward as he slammed the SpecTrix dial, hoping that this would work. He hit the ground hard, and everything went black. ---- "Well, well, well, who do have we here?" As Tech slowly forced his eyes open, he noticed three things. One was that his body ached all over, and that he would probably be raiding the painkillers once he got home. The second was that he was in a gray room with no obvious walls, floor, or roof of any kind. Oh, and there was a large entity seemingly composed of three transparent ovals layered inside of each other floating above him. That was kind of important too. Tech shot up into a standing position, something he rather quickly regretted doing, seeing as his body didn't particularly feel like doing anything yet. As he momentarily lost his footing and grunted in pain, the entity floated down to a couple of meters in front of him. Tech noted that the entity was around his size, though it's constant shifting made it hard to tell how large he might specifically be. "I certainly don't see many of you human minds around here." The entity mused, its thoughts ringing out through space as if it was speaking. "Come to think of it, I've never actually seen any lifeform's mind exist in this realm for more than a few seconds." "What about yourself, then?" Tech managed to spit out, still rather hung up on the whole 'in ridiculous amounts of pain' thing. "Oh, I'm not a lifeform, at least not in the way you might think of one. Think of me more like a sentient force of nature, or your friendly neighborhood Eldritch Abomination here to tell you you've made a terrible mistake." The entity started to float smoothly around the room, never quite leaving Tech's field of view. "What are you talking about?" Tech questioned. "Well, it's actually very simple." The entity responded. "I'm The Void, and this here is the multitemporal pocket dimension where I reside. If you're here, that can only mean you're about to get a whole lot less sane." "You're really not making this any clearer." The Void sighed, the circles comprising it rolling in a fashion very similar to an eye roll. "Let me finish, okay?" It asked with exasperation in its 'voice'. "So, here's how this works. My job is to drain sentient creatures of their Kunenga Energy-" "Kune-what now?" "Kunenga Energy is a type of- you know what, we'll just call it 'Sapience Juice' for simplicity's sake." The Void tsked. "I suck out Sapience Juice and convert it into Void Energy to stop lifeforms from evolving too quickly. If someone gets a bit too much drained, they tend to go a little bit screwy." "That...sounds more than just a little ominous." Tech raised an eyebrow. "Yes, I can see how you would come to that conclusion." The Void's rings moved up and down in 'shrugging' motion. "Well, there are two things you should know about the whole process. One, I don't actively control it. Two, and this is really important, if the sapience of creatures such as Humans, Galvans, and what not weren't kept in check, there would be drastic consequences for the whole multiverse. The last people to escape my influence turned into an entity bent on the destruction of all life, and we all know how that went down." "I have no goddamn clue how that went down." "Oh, right. Well, suffice to say it wasn't pretty." "Unimportant crap aside, what does all this have to do with me?" Tech demanded. "Well, you've somehow managed to turn your body into something that really definitely should not exist." The Void explained. "Your mind or soul or whatever you want to call it got ejected here all at once because of it. I can send you back, but you probably won't be in control of your body until you turn into something else. "How the hell am I supposed to do that if I can't control my body?!" Tech snapped. "Eh, I dunno. You'll probably figure something out. You humans seem to be good at surviving things. Tata now!" The room started to fade to black, and Tech felt as if he was being drained of energy. He collapsed on the ground, and the last thing he saw before he fell back into unconsciousness was The Void looming over him. ---- Warlord Kroz, unlike most of his brethren, was not easily confused. Very few things could genuinely puzzle him; however, as he stared at the limp form of his adversary, he conceded to himself that he was truly puzzled. Tech laid on the ground in the form of a creature that quite frankly looked like it shouldn't exist. Bones were exposed, corrupted tissue was evident, and it was hard to tell if the strange beast was even alive. Kroz paused for a moment to consider what he should do next, when all of a sudden, the form started moving. It rose slowly and methodically, joints twisting in ways they really probably shouldn't. Once it stood, it turned around to face Kroz, revealing a seemingly blank face. Several moments passed, Kroz unsure as to if he should attack or run. Suddenly, two glowing orbs appeared on the featureless face, appearing to be eyes. The rest of its face split open in several directions to reveal four mouths filled to the brim with sharp teeth, seemingly in a constant state of half-smiling, half-frowning. The creature spasmed, and its mouths opened, unsettling laughter spilling forth from them like a chorus of insanity. "What's so funny?" Kroz asked warily. The creature stopped laughing. "What?" It replied in a voice seemingly not used in eons. "Don't you get the joke?" "What joke?" The creature shook its head. "Oh well. You're in my way." "What do you mean?" Instead of responding, the creature suddenly leaped forward, swiping madly at Kroz, who managed to dodge the blows. The creature started teleporting wildly, apparently trying to telefrag its opponent. Kroz attempted to counterattack, but the creature was too fast. It jumped out of the way and turned invisible, launching a volley of light and shadow energy in rapid succession, managing to land a few blows. The creature teleported directly in front of Kroz, revealing itself, and then performed a strange five-point pressure attack with its energy. Kroz could feel his limbs separating from his body, and dispersed then reformed behind the creature, landing a punch on its back. A sickening crack rang through the area, and the creature twisted its head around, opening its mouths and shooting beams of light and shadow from them. Kroz managed to dodge the beams and grab the creature in a choke hold, taking a hold of its head and twisting it back around to face away from him. The creature started wildly flailing its limbs around, trying to attack the opponent that was holding it from behind. Kroz loosened his grip and kicked the creature away, knocking it to the ground. It got up and charged at Kroz, who braced himself, and as it got close, he reared back and slammed his fist into the SpecTrix symbol on its chest as it shoved its arm through his own chest, creating a large gap. There was a moment of silence before Kroz punched the creature's symbol a second time, sending it flying and finally forcing it to detransform, revealing a very battered Tech. Kroz reformed the gap in his chest and walked over to Tech, who was attempting to stand up. "It appears that I am the victor, human." Kroz stated. "Concede before you receive further injury." Tech coughed a bit, then reached for the dial on the SpecTrix. "You know, I was considering giving up until you told me to." Tech rotated and slammed down on the dial, transforming him into Golurth, who towered over Kroz by a good meter. "Now I want to kick your ass just on principle." Kroz responded by jumping up in the air and throwing a punch at Tech's head. Tech blocked it with his arm, which partially crumbled under the force of the blow. Kroz landed several more hits in rapid succession, whittling down Golurth's body incredibly quickly before he managed to smack him away. Golurth prepared a beam of Dark Mana and shot it at Kroz, who dodged it and resumed attacking him, whittling down more of his body and eventually knocking him back several yards. The SpecTrix started buzzing again. "Tech!" Aquadilus's voice came through the device. "Tech, are you there?! I lost connection with the SpecTrix for a few minutes, and now my console is reading that your form has sustained major damage!" "I'm fine, Aquadilus." Golurth responded. He attempted to stand, but was interrupted by the unfortunate occurrence of his right arm falling off and crumbling away once it hit the ground. "You're in worse shape than a rat caught in a meat grinder." Aquadilus deadpanned. "Okay, maybe, but I can't just give up!" "You're going to get yourself killed if you don't!" "Don't threaten me with a good time!" "Oh, for the love of-" Aquadilus hissed. "If you're dead set on this, the SpecTrix probably has something that you can use, just try and figure it out!" "Gee, thanks, you're a lifesaver." "Enough of this!" Kroz yelled. Golurth looked up to see Warlord Kroz shooting him a stern glare. "You are gravely injured, and if you do not concede, you forfeit your life!" Kroz stated. "Are you truly willing to continue fighting with this knowledge?!" "You're the one who dragged me out here." Golurth grumbled. "I'm not letting you off the hook that easy!" "Then I take no responsibility for your demise." He shot forward, preparing a finishing blow. Golurth reached for the SpecTrix dial and pulled out on it, forcibly raising the hourglass symbol. "Let's hope this does something good!" He yelled, then slammed down on it. There was a blinding flash of green as four metal clamps came from the SpecTrix symbol and fixed themselves to Golurth. Dark Mana began flowing heavily from the wounds Tech had received and pooled on the ground in a fog-like form. The mana flashed green and became teal, then began growing and suddenly erupted into teal flames, consuming Tech in a blinding light. The flames grew larger and a huge form started rising out of them, covered in energy. The form grew to forty feet in height and suddenly stopped, the energy surrounding it and the teal flames being absorbed into its body, revealing a huge being mostly made of energy and covered in faces. "Ultimate Golurth!" The form yelled, now towering over everything else in the landscape. Warlord Kroz stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening. He had fought many beings across many systems but had never come across something quite so ridiculous. Tech was rather impressed by the new form, especially the size. "What was that about conceding?" Ultimate Golurth said smugly. Kroz did not respond, opting instead to jump up to the solid matter on Ultimate Golurth's upper torso and delivering a vicious volley of attacks that managed to force him back a few steps, then landing a kick to the head that knocked him over onto his back, causing a rather large thud as he hit the ground. Kroz landed just behind his opponent's head. "Your size means nothing if you cannot control your body." "Good point." The ground around Kroz started shaking, and he was suddenly trapped a large mound of dirt. He quickly dug his way out, only to find Ultimate Golurth standing above him, ready to land a hit with his huge arms. Kroz attempted to dodge but was stopped by a large wall of dirt rising in front of him. His opponent's blow hit dead on, smashing the Emotispecter into the ground. Ultimate Golurth raised his arms again, but was interrupted by the SpecTrix beeping wildly and suddenly detransforming him about ten feet in the air. Tech hit the ground rolling, but still received some rather nasty bruises. Kroz burst out of the ground as Tech slowly pulled himself to his feet, with both combatants being equally worn out. "You wanna call this a day and grab a beer or something?" Tech panted. "On the contrary." Kroz moved into a defensive stance. "I haven't had a fight this engaging in ages." "That's just as well, then." Tech sighed, pulling up the SpecTrix. "I'm underage." Before either of them could make a move, a smoke grenade suddenly dropped onto the ground between the two, creating a cloud of smoke too thick to see through. Tech slammed down on the SpecTrix dial, transforming into Carbon again right before a blade made contact with his abdomen, bouncing off with a loud clang. "Ha, too slow!" Carbon taunted. "Whoever you are, you really need to work on your-" Carbon was suddenly blown backward by a punch to the SpecTrix symbol, sending him flying a few feet and reverting him to human. The smoke cleared to reveal the same assassin that had attacked him previously sheathing her sword. "You again?!" Tech snapped. "I don't know if you noticed, but I'm kind of in the middle of something here!" "I don't care." The assassin replied bluntly. "I'm here to kill you, not worry about your schedule." "With all due respect..." Kroz stepped up behind the assassin. "I am fighting this man for the fate of this planet. You can kill him another time." "Or, you know, not at all." Tech interjected. "I need this kill, or the guild will have my head." The assassin said, keeping her eyes on Tech. "Find someone else to fight." "They decapitate people in space?" Tech looked confused. "Okay, first off, it's a figure of speech; they won't use decapitation to kill me." The assassin snapped. "Secondly, why would being in space exclude decapitation to begin with?" "I don't know, I just assume if you're in space you have some more advanced murder ideas." Tech shrugged. "Decapitation seems so...18th century." "We don't use Earth units of time so I don't know how to interpret that." "They don't teach you unit conversion in space assassin school?" "Why would they-" The assassin shook her head. "What am I doing? I'm here to kill you, not get wrapped up in your incessant rambling!" "What can I say?" Tech got to his feet. "I'm a charmer." The assassin pulled out a gun and aimed it at Tech, only for Kroz to step in front of her and crush its barrel, rendering it inoperable. "Like I said, we are fighting at the moment." Kroz hissed. "Leave or I will make you." "I really didn't want to do this." The assassin threw her gun to the ground and pulled up a bracelet on her left arm. "Do what, show off your jewelry?" Tech laughed. "I mean yeah it looks good, but is this really the time?" The assassin pressed a button on the bracelet, which projected a holographic control panel. She scrolled through a couple of options before pressing a button at the bottom of the screen. There was a purple flash of light, which cleared to reveal that she had transformed into a black and red snake-like alien with yellow markings and three eyes. A hexagonal Omnitrix symbol sat on a large ornamental necklace fastened around her neck. "What the hell?!" Tech exclaimed, eyes widening in shock. "Why do you have an Omnitrix?!" "That's none of your concern." The snake-like alien replied. "Kinda is since you're trying to kill me!" "I warned you." Kroz drew back in preparation to strike. Before Kroz could attack, the snake-like alien created a massive blast of flame directly in his face, forcing him to retreat to a safe distance. "A snake that controls fire, huh?" Tech snorted. "What do you call that one, 'Snekfire'?" "I don't name them." "Then I'm naming it for you; you're Snekfire now, deal with it." "You can call me whatever you want as long as you die." Snekfire summoned a fiery whip and lunged at Tech. "Look, there are only so many witty ways I can tell you no way, Jose." Tech slammed on the SpecTrix dial, transforming into Overtide. "I'll just be blunt and tell you to screw off." Snekfire's flaming whip sizzled and disappeared against Overtide's icy body, prompting an involuntary hiss from her. "My life...no, more important than that, the guild's honor is on the line here!" Snekfire snapped. "You could at least take this seriously!" "Honor is bullshit and I don't know you at all." Overtide said flatly. "If I took you seriously I'd be saying I agree with you on some level, and to be perfectly blunt, I don't in the slightest." Before Snekfire could reply, she was punched in the back from behind by Kroz. Her body spasmed momentarily before falling to the ground, forcibly reverting to her human form. "What...was that?" The assassin groaned, her nerves fuzzy. "If I pool my power, I can overload and essentially destroy an opponent's nervous system in one blow, killing them; or rather, forcing them out of their current form, in your case." Kroz explained. "It's one of the ancient arts I learned from the Specterian masters. I admit I'm surprised you survived it, even with the buffer of your alien form." "Wha-" Overtide stammered. "You could have done that all along?!" "There is no honor in leading with a finisher." Kroz stated sternly. Overtide stared at Kroz incredulously. "What is wrong with you people?!" The assassin began crawling towards Overtide, grabbing at one of the pouches on her belt despite barely being able to move. "I...need to...kill you." She hissed. "I need to...do my duty!" "Ha, you said 'doodie'." Overtide snickered. "God, I'm terrible." "Show some dignity." Kroz snapped. "She likely would have killed you if I had not been here." "You underestimate my ability to run away from things." Overtide retorted. "Look, it's obvious the whole vibe of this thing's been ruined, so how about we fight some other time?" "I suppose that's reasonable." Kroz sighed. "You better train yourself as hard as you can, for when I return, I will be even stronger than I am now." Kroz turned and began walking away into the desert. "Uh...where are you going?" Overtide asked. "To the nearest spaceport." Kroz replied over his shoulder. "That's kind of a long walk." Overtide said. "Do you need a lift?" "No." Kroz said. "This will be good endurance training. I expect you to be training equally as vigorously." "Oh, yeah, totally, will do." Overtide gave him a thumbs up. Kroz nodded and continued walking, eventually becoming little more than a speck on the horizon. "Joke's on him, I will not be doing any of that." Overtide said as soon as Kroz was out of hearing range, then noticed the assassin still slowly crawling towards him. "Oh yeah, you're still here." "I...have...to..." She pulled herself to her feet, causing a surprised Overtide to take a step back. "Have...to..." The assassin stopped moving, falling unconscious in the middle of talking. She was still standing, with her right hand outstretched towards her target. "God, that would be so badass if it weren't terrifying." Overtide shivered. "Welp, I guess I'm done here." "Tech, no." Aquadilus chimed in over the SpecTrix's comm channel. "What is it now?" Overtide snapped. "You can't just leave her there!" Aquadilus pointed out. "When she wakes up, she's just going to come after you again!" "Right, good point." Overtide clapped his hands together. "In that case, I have a solution!" ---- Tech walked into the back room dragging the assassin's limp body across the ground and then left her propped up against the wall, prompting an incredulous double-take from Aquadilus. "Jesus Christ, that was like dragging around a sack of crowbars." Tech huffed, dropping into his chair. "This was your solution?!" Aquadilus snapped. "I never said it was a good solution." Tech shrugged. "What happens when she wakes up?!" Aquadilus hissed. "You're dead meat!" "Are you talking about me?" The assassin said. "SHIT!" Tech jumped in his seat, knocking his chair over backward. "God dammit, that scared the hell out of me!" "What are you doing?" The assassin asked, getting to her feet. "Falling for you, apparently." Tech groaned, pulling himself up. The assassin gave him a confused look. "It's a pun." Tech grumbled. "They have puns in space, don't they?" "Tech, stop casually conversing with the assassin!" Aquadilus hissed. "She's a member of the AS guild, remember?! She's going to kill you!" "Hey, the only person capable of killing me is myself, firstly." Tech said. "Secondly, if she was going to kill me, shouldn't she have stabbed me already?" "In close quarters like this, I would probably have snapped your neck, actually." The assassin piped up. "Right, see?" Tech said self-righteously. "Thank you for backing me up here." "I have no idea what's going on." "Neither do I, but that's a good point." Aquadilus narrowed his eyes. "You people never give up on a target." "I have no choice." The assassin replied. "I failed twice. By law of the guild, I must die either by my own hand or by theirs. Failures cannot be tolerated." "Geez, not even a three-strike system?" Tech scratched the back of his head. "Whack." "Whack what?" "It's slang." "Slang nobody has used since the 90s." Aquadilus interjected. "Slang I'' use ''now because it should never have gone out of style." Tech retorted. "It absolutely should have." "Too bad, I'm keeping it alive." Tech tsked. "Anyway, this whole death rule seems pretty dumb. Why not just flake out on it?" "I have a camera implant in my right eye." The assassin said. "Even if I were to run, they would always find me." "Right, right, sounds neato." Tech hummed. "Alvono!" "On it!" Alvono jumped out of the computer bank and stuck his finger in the assassin's eye, pulling out a merged camera system which he fried in short order. "Since when can you perform on-the-fly eye surgery?!" Aquadilus yelled. "'Surgery' is a strong word for what I just did there." Alvono replied. The assassin doubled over for a second, clutching at her eye. When she removed her hand, there was a bright red circle of broken blood vessels that began to close up almost immediately. "Healing nanomachines." Alvono whistled. "Damn, they really gave you the works." "I don't know what you're trying to pull, but even if they can't track me, they'll be out for my blood." The assassin glowered. "Besides, I have a code of honor to follow. I have to die." "No, no you don't, because if you do, that would be dumb and stupid." Tech snapped. "I have way too many questions about all this for you to kill yourself right now!" "Like what?" "Like, how do you have an Omnitrix?" Tech started. "Why is a teenager working for alien assassins in the first place? Why are you wearing a full-body black ninja suit if you aren't even gonna bother covering your head? Why do I find it strangely attractive when you pull a weapon on me? Why do you-" "Hang on, repeat that last one." Alvono interrupted. "Absolutely not, that one was not meant to be said out loud to begin with." "I was given this Omnitrix by a scientist called Xr. Nullamor." The assassin replied. "He's testing a 'drive-based transformation system', in his own words." "Who the hell is Xr. Nullamor?" Tech asked. "He's a Psioknight geneticist known for his work with DNA fusion technology." Aquadilus explained. "No idea where he got the tech to make an Omnitrix, though." "As for how I ended up in the assassin's guild, even I don't know the answer to that." The assassin said. "I was raised in it from the time I was a baby." "Well then, you gotta find you parents, right?" Tech said. "Figure out what happened to them. For all you know, they might still be looking for you." "Nah, guild probably killed them and stole the baby." Alvono said. "Not helping." "Not trying to." "Why do you want me alive to begin with?" The assassin asked. "It can't just be to ask me pointless questions. Both of our encounters have been extremely short and consisted entirely of me trying to kill you." "What can I say?" Tech shrugged. "I'm a sweetheart." "You have actively attempted to destroy Christmas on three separate occasions because you, and I quote, 'hate joy and everything that it represents'." Aquadilus interjected. "Fine, I just...I don't even know, man." Tech huffed. "I'm female." "Noted, but not the point." Tech sighed. "Look, as much shit as I like to talk for the edgelord points, death in general makes me squeamish, and I don't want anyone to die if they don't have to. Even you." "That's somehow both wholesome and incredibly shallow." Aquadilus said. "Hell yeah it is." "You are an incredibly odd person." The assassin said. "Oh, this coming from Ms. 'I'm gonna commit sudoku'?" Tech snapped. "We'll say you're both horrible miscarriages of nature and call it even, okay?" Alvono stepped between the two. "I'm...just going to leave now." The assassin said. "I have to complete my duty." "Oh, no you don't!" Tech stepped around Alvono to point at her. "You can't go off and kill yourself because...because I'm hiring you!" There were a few moments of dead silence. "...Excuse me?" The assassin asked, confused. "Your guild takes contracts, right?" Tech said. "I'm hiring you to not die. Check and mate, asshole!" "That is...absolutely not how that works." The assassin said incredulously. "It is now!" Tech declared. "What's your hiring rate?" "You can't just-" "Hell yeah, I can!" Tech exclaimed. "If it means you stick around in this bitch of a universe, I'm gonna keep bugging you to hell and back until you die of old age!" The assassin stared back at him, completely unsure how to respond. "Tech, I swear to God..." Aquadilus groaned. "...I'll think about it." The assassin said. "WHAT?!" Aquadilus coughed. "I'll think about what you said." The assassin continued speaking to Tech. "I...actually would like to find out what happened to my parents before I die. While I'm searching...I'll think about all this. I'll let you know when I decide what my path will be." "Sounds good." Tech gave a cocky thumbs-up. "One last question before you go, though." "What?" "I never got your name." Tech said. "Mine's Tech, by the way." "I know, I read it in the contract file." The assassin replied. "My name is Moranna. Moranna Ceres." "Possibly even weirder than 'Tech', but okay!" Tech stated. "See ya around!" Moranna nodded and walked out the door, shortly leaving the shop entirely. Tech, Alvono, and Aquadilus stared after her in silence for a few moments. "So...is she gonna walk the whole way too?" Aquadilus piped up. "Probably." Tech sniffed. "Space people, am I right?" "I can't tell if that's racist or not." "I say not." Alvono mused. "I mean, unless we're talking about the US and USSR's dick-measuring contest, there's no such thing as a Space Race." "True." Aquadilus tsked. "Either way, Tech, I have to admit I'm impressed. I never thought you'd be mature enough to talk an enemy out of harming themselves." "I'm not mature, I'm stubborn." Tech protested. "'Mature' implies some set of expectations I'm not willing to endorse." "Of course." Aquadilus grumbled. "Besides, I'm not sure why you're so surprised I tried to stop something depressing." Tech said. "After all, I write sins, not tragedies." Aquadilus slowly turned to look at Tech with a disgusted expression. "I hope you burn in a house fire for that pun, you absolute son of a bitch." "Ha, that makes fifty-two!" Tech clapped. "That is officially the fifty-second time you've said that to me! Alvono, mark that down!" "Got it!" ---- Tech laid in his bed, rather miffed about how difficult it was being to get to sleep. Adrenaline-fueled insomnia keeping you awake is preferable to death, sure, but only by a little. As he was about to fall asleep, a duplicate of him wearing a visor over his eyes suddenly teleported into his room with a bright flash, startling him back to being fully awake. "Goddammit, what now?!" Tech snapped, trying to keep his voice down to avoid waking anyone else. "Hey, it's me, The Void." The new arrival announced. "I just wanted to do a quick follow-up with you, but I realized I needed a body to exist in your dimension and what not." "And you decided to make your body look like me?!" Tech hissed. "I wasn't sure what to manifest as for my physical form, so I just copied you." The Void said. "Is that weird?" "Yes, that's weird!" Tech snapped. "Turn into someone else!" "I would, but I don't know who else to turn into." "Oh for the love of..." Tech groaned. "Look, just change your clothes at least. Change into something I would never wear!" The Void suddenly manifested an orange and red pinstripe suit with an identically-styled top hat. "Will this do?" The Void asked. "I mean yeah, I guess, but why a suit of all things?" "Well, from what I know, suits are usually worn at weddings, and you seem like the type to die alone." The Void shrugged. "I-...you-...just because something's true doesn't mean you should say it!" Tech snapped. "Get out of my house!" "I'm planning on it, but first, I came here to tell you something." The Void said. "Since you got brought into my dimension and back, you now have Void Energy inside you. Try to be careful." "Oh yeah, you mentioned that stuff before, didn't you?" Tech grumbled. "What does it do?" "Whatever you need it to." The Void replied. "Just don't use too much of it. It doesn't play well with eyes." "What is that supposed to mean?" "Why do you think I'm wearing a visor?" The Void tapped his head. "Couldn't get the eyes to stop evaporating." "Okay, ew, did not need to know that." Tech winced. "Look, I don't want anything to do with this stuff, so I doubt I'm gonna do anything with it. Can you just screw off now?" "Sure, but remember my warning." The Void said. "We don't need you going blind right as things are ramping up." "Ramping up?" Tech repeated. "What do you mean 'ramping u-'...and you are already gone." Indeed, The Void's physical body had disappeared from the room. Tech rolled his eyes and tried to get back to sleep, ignoring the nagging feeling that something wasn't quite right. Major Events *Warlord Kroz makes his debut. *Tech meets Warlord Kroz for the first time. *Warlord Kroz challenges Tech to a duel for Earth under the Galactic Code of Conduct, battling him to a draw. *Tech learns of The Void. *Tech turns into a combination alien for the first time. *Tech evolves a form for the first time. *Rebide makes his debut. *Carbon makes his Tech 10 debut. *Heatjet makes his debut. *Umbra makes his debut. *Luminferus makes his debut. *Splitter makes his debut. *Blyte makes his debut. *Golurth makes his debut. *Ultimate Golurth makes his debut. Characters Protagonists *Tech *Aquadilus *Alvono Antagonists *Warlord Kroz Aliens Used 'Normal Aliens' *Electrolite *Terminano *Rebide *Carbon *Heatjet *Sandrill *Umbra *Luminferus *Splitter *Golurth 'Combined Aliens' *Blyte 'Evolved Aliens' *Ultimate Golurth Category:Episodes Category:Tech 10 Category:Tech 10: Rebooted Category:Episodes of Tech 10: Rebooted Category:Earth-83